ABBANDONATA

ABBANDONATA is story about a woman whose companion goes on a trip, and after years away, still has not returned. It was inspired by the story of Penelope and Odysseus. I worked on Abbandonata from February 2013 through May 2015. Within this time period I created 10 video episodes, 45 “fragments,” details about the video episodes, and a short book, printed in a very small quantity with new material, related to the first video episode.

Some months after the 10th video episode, which was completed in January 2015, I decided that the 10th video episode had brought this experiment in storytelling to a close. Abbandonata was based on a short story I wrote on the subway while commuting to work, and it took off in its own direction over time via video, photos and writing. While it is not conventional story-telling, it has a thread which is unmistakably a story, however mysterious, ephemeral, and intuitive.

The next step for Abbandonata is to create a single movie out of the 10 video chapters, and a book of photos and writing out of the fragments. The first project will be initiated this year, the second, I am not sure about. Either way, my feeling now is that it needs to be wrapped up in its own distinct “shroud,” for lack of a better word, so that its story can be assembled according to its own logic, and be considered as a whole at last. I have my work cut out for me.

Some explanation about the additional pages below – in addition to the main video episode section, there are three other sections on this blog associated with ABBANDONATA:

ABBANDONATA: Fragments contains information that is pertinent to the general creation of this story, a kind of online workbook which revealed whatever inspired me as I moved forward with the project. There is also a Fragments Index which keeps track of these.

The Fragments portion of the ABBANDONATA project was meant to be a kind of storage area for inspirations and thoughts pertaining to the project, prior to an actual video episode. At this point, I want to keep an organized index of them for potential integration into the project in some way, so that is what…

Consolidation And Close Of Abbandonata Project I thought about this a lot over the last month or so. And I’ve decided that it is time to consolidate the material I have for Abbandonata into a work of its own. All ten video episodes will be brought together as a single film. I would also like to create…